Alternatives to the academe/workplace dichotomy?

["Geoff Hart" <Geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca>]

Anonymous Poster has <<... regretfully decided that earning a
Ph.D. in English Literature was probably not going to land 
me a tenure-track position... Over the past ten years, I have 
held positions in technical communications up to Director of 
Documentation. At this point in my life, I realize how much I 
miss teaching and working with students.>>

Given that you've got a track record both in the academy and 
in "the practice", you've got a huge array of options open to 
you. These include:

1. Satisfy your desire to teach by doing pro bono work at 
high schools or universities (e.g., as a tutor, "big brother" or 
"big sister", mentor). You may even find community centres 
that need tutors for recent immigrants struggling with English 
or dyslexic or illiterate non-immigrants. There won't likely be 
any financial compensation, but there will be lots of 
satisfaction. (I say this with full knowledge of how much I 
enjoyed tutoring throughout high school and university, and 
how much I enjoy the virtual equivalent here on techwr-l.)

2. Contact a local university and offer to come in as an 
occasional lecturer or teaching assistant. In both cases, you 
may even get an honorarium to accompany the pleasure of 
teaching. Variants on this include providing "work terms" for 
students at your own company, or letting students complete 
classroom assignments by working on small projects for you 
rather than coming up with fictional projects.

3. Develop your own series of courses and market them 
locally and eventually nationally or even internationally. 
Given your firm grounding in both the workplace (practical 
stuff) and the academy (theory), you should be able to come 
up with a series of killer 1- or 2-day courses. At $100 to $500 
U.S. per student per day, you can make a good living this 
way... provided that you keep evolving your course material 
and acquire a good "word of mouth" reputation.

4. Set yourself up as an independent contractor, and do 
consulting work ("train the trainer" or "I'll come into your 
office and train your staff") on the side.

Except for options 3 and 4, you'll probably need a day job to 
pay for the kitty litter and other necessities of life. And the 
boundaries between these categories blur enough that you 
can choose somewhere along the spectrum that balances your 
need for income and teaching time. Best of luck!

--Geoff Hart @8^{)}     Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

"Perhaps there is something deep and profound behind all those sevens, something just calling out for us to discover it. But I 
suspect that it is only a pernicious, Pythagorean coincidence." George Miller, "The Magical Number Seven" (1956)